Friday, September 25, 2009

Introducing Cori Aletta

Cori Aletta has finally made her appearance!

She was born on September 23rd at 14:29 KST. She weighed 3460 grams (roughly 7 lbs, 10 oz), and was 50 cm long (just under 20 inches). She has a head full of dark hair and is just absolutely perfect.

I tried to remember everything as best I could, but I was pretty out of it with lots of intense contractions.

I had my 41 week checkup on September 22nd at 9am. My doctor decided then to go ahead and induce me since I'd been having painful labor contractions for about a month. I was almost completely effaced, but not dilated. My doctor decided to put me on Pitocin and see how my body and the baby reacted. If i didn't progress, he was to send me home and I'd continue to wait it out.

Around 10am, I was put on Pitocin. The contractions came soon after, but they weren't anymore intense than what I'd already been having for weeks. At about 3:30pm, I was checked and at 2 cm, but still not fully effaced. He decided to turn the Pitocin off and gave me a vaginal suppository to help finish effacing me. I was 2cm when the doctor checked me for the last time on evening of the 22nd. When he came back in on the morning of the 23rd, (I believe it was about 6am), I was checked and at 4cm, still not fully effaced. The contractions were horrendous in pain by this point and so close together that I was having trouble breathing through them.

Four hours later, I was checked again and still at 4cm. I was extremely disappointed because of the excruciating pain I'd been in for hours now. Much to my own disappointment, I decided to ask for an epidural. My husband tried coaxing me out of it, but I was in so much pain, I had to give in and ask. My doctor said that he highly discouraged me from getting it because it would drastically slow my progress. I didn't care at that point and kept begging for it. He kept putting it off, and about an a few hours later, he finally agreed to give it to me. I was still at 4cm when I received the epidural. All the epidural did was slightly numb my toes and slightly took the edge off of the contractions. I was still having to breathe and concentrate through the contractions and I could still feel pretty much everything.

Thirty minutes later, when the doctor came in and saw that I was still breathing very heavily, he asked me if the epidural had worked. I told him I didn't think so, and he started touching different parts of my lower body to check my reactions. I felt everything, so he agreed to give me one more dosage. I had the same reaction as before, and could still feel every little contraction. This was somewhere around 1:15pm, I think, and he told me I was 5cm dilated.

Another thirty minutes later, he came in to check for dilation. After he checked, he went over to the phone and called a nurse in. He was speaking Korean, so I had no idea what he was saying, but I was pretty sure I had heard the word "push". When he got off, he came over and said "Okay, you are over 9 cm, almost completely dilated and ready to push." I looked at my husband, looked back at the doctor and said "I'M 9 CENTIMETERS? I was at a 5 just 30 minutes ago." He replied with "Yes, you progressed extremely fast. You will be ready to push in just a few minutes."

The nurses came in and they all started prepping the room at this point for delivery. My doctor told me I was probably going to push between 1 and 2 hours. He told me that as soon as I felt the urge to bear down to just let him know and do what my body told me to. I was already feeling the urge to start pushing, so I did.

After just ten minutes of pushing, she came out and was placed on my chest. I could never put into words the emotions I felt when I looked down and saw this beautiful being laying on my body. The doctor clamped the cord and handed the scissors to my husband to cut the cord. I held her for a few minutes, and then she was whisked away to the nursery. My husband and I have never experienced such joy when we saw her and no words would ever describe our feelings.

Since I tore quite a bit, it took the doctor about 40 minutes to fully stitch me up and for me to expel the placenta. I was moved to recovery soon thereafter, and a couple of hours later, our beautiful baby girl was brought to us.

She seemed to have a perfect latch and suck the first day that she was born. After about 24 hours of birth, the nutrionist decided that since she had lost a few ounces, she needed to have formula supplemented. Breastfeeding went downhill from there, and I am pretty angry with the nutrionist. We are trying to get back on track, and hopefully it won't take too long.

We are both healthy and doing great at this point. We came home this morning, and are just trying to settle in at home. Thank you all for the support you have provided me. :)